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Dell’s Out-of-Town Tryout for Smartphones

Dell has finally confirmed what has been bouncing around the market for some time, that it is entering the smartphone business.

It’s not saying very much about its strategy, other than that it is using Google’s Android operating system. (That, in itself, confirms what is becoming clear about Android: That it is now the Windows of cellphones, the operating system for hardware companies that don’t write their own operating systems.)

What Dell is doing is not starting by fighting head-to-head with Samsung, HTC, Motorola (not to mention Apple and Research in Motion) in the United States. Rather it debuting its products in two big developing markets where, presumably, its core strength in delivering generic technology cheaply will be valued.

Dell said it will distribute its first Android handset, the Mini 3, through China Mobile, the largest phone company in the world, with half a billion customers. In Brazil, the phone will be sold through Claro, the Brazilian wireless outpost of América Móvil, a big chain of wireless companies controlled by Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican financier.

The company did not release any specifications for the Mini 3 handset. It released a few photos that make it clear that the phones are thin touch-screen models with no physical keyboards.